Those Who Came Before

August 26, 2019
On its face, this promising horror thriller with a Native American main character calls out the atrocities suffered by America’s indigenous population, but it soon becomes clear that the underlying narrative buys into harmful stereotypes. The setting is Clear Springs, a thinly described fictional town that could be anywhere between Georgia and Ontario; the area’s Native Americans, the Strong Lake Band, are likewise divorced from any real nations or cultures. Detective Maria Greyeyes, who has Native blood but was raised far from her roots, is called on to investigate a triple homicide at a campground the local Natives avoid because of rumors of evil spirits. When Maria enlists Chief Kinew to find the killer, she begins to learn more about her heritage and the area’s “lost tribe.” Sadly, the positive portrayals of Natives are overshadowed by the “savage Indian” trope and other clichés, including benevolent matriarchy, shamanic mysticism, and alcoholism. In addition to weak characterizations, the alternation between a survivor’s disjointed first-person narration and Maria’s emotionally distant third-person sections makes the story hard to follow. Liberal quantities of gore (“I saw a young woman turned into a puddle”) can’t keep this novel from being sluggish and unsatisfying.

March 6, 2020

When Reese and his friends break into a closed campground for the night, they believe their trespassing to be harmless, until Reese awakens in the morning to his friends' lifeless bodies. On the scene is Det. Maria Greyeyes, who quickly realizes there's more to Strong Lake than this one act of violence. As people visiting the site become increasingly ill and ultimately die, Greyeyes wonders if there's some truth to the old tales about the land being cursed. Moncrieff (The Girl Who Talks to Ghosts) crafts a chilling story that crosses genre lines between police procedural and fantasy horror. Told through the perspectives of a survivor and the lead detective, this novel will keep readers guessing. VERDICT Moncrieff's skilled storytelling, while incorporating plenty of gore and violence at times, will draw in horror and mystery readers. Hand to fans of Dean Koontz and Charlaine Harris.--Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
A simple camping trip goes horribly wrong for Reese and his friends one weekend, and Reese ends up being the sole survivor of a brutal attack. Alone and scared, Reese tries to make sense of everything while his world crumbles around him. The detective in charge of the investigation into the attack, Maria Greyeyes, isn't having any of his nonsense until it becomes clear that there's more to this than meets the eye. Both main characters are incredibly relatable: Reese grows tremendously as the story progresses and Detective Greyeyes is endearing as a mother and steadfast in her search for what really happened that weekend. She's forced to contend with her Native heritage, something she'd mostly ignored in order to blend in. Moncrieff's novel is a lightning-fast read, which is not a bad thing. She paints a vivid picture of the lost tribe and weaves her story arcs together brilliantly. She also sheds light on Native peoples' treatment in both past and present, smoothly integrating the issue into the novel. Readers won't want to put it down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)